David Ivar Swanson

David Ivar Swanson, representative from the Eleventh District in the 53rd and 54th Illinois General Assemblies, is a Chicago attorney, with offices at 10 South La Salle Street and one of the able men of his generation in the law and in public affairs.

He was born at Chicago, September 14, 1884, son of John and Betty (Jonson) Swanson. His parents came from Sweden. David I. Swanson grew up in Chicago, his early associations training him to take as well as to give hard knocks, and developing in him a character adequate for all the varying responsibilities of life. He attended public schools, and in 1912 received his law degree from the John Marshall Law School at Chicago. Since his admission to the bar in 1913 he has engaged in an extensive independent practice, before the Federal as well as State courts, and he has handled a large volume of litigation in real estate, criminal, commercial and probate law.

Mr. Swanson is a republican, and was first candidate for the Legislature in 1918. In 1922 he was elected one of the representatives from the Eleventh Illinois District and in 1924 was reelected.

During the session of the Fifty-fourth Assembly, in the spring of 1925, James O'Donnell Bennett, a veteran journalist, made some interesting studies of the Illinois Legislature, one of them devoted largely to Representative Swanson's personaity and methods. In the course of his articles Mr. Bennett said : "Everywhere here I have heard the name David I. Swanson fair spoken in the mouths of careful speaking men. He is chairman of the important judiciary committee and member of the committee on banks, on banking, and building and loan associations and on insurance. The least sophisticated of tax payers will recognize in that list devious, dubious and self aiding opportunities that would unman a young legislator who lacks character. But what you hear on every hand is emphatic comment on Swansons methodical views and tenacity, his patience and industry, his promptness and energy, his honesty. Such comment often winds up with 'he is one of the coming men of Illinois.'

When he is home David I. Swanson lives at 7842 Marshfield Avenue, Chicago. He sprang from no downy bed of ease, having had rigorous beginnings in the stock yards area, where boys are hard as nails. His deportment today gives no sign of tough origin."

Mr. Swanson during the World war, served with the Motor Transport Corps at Camp Meigs, Washington. D. C. He is a member of the Chicago and Illinois Bar Associations, the Englewood Business Men's Association, the Kiwanis and Mid-Day Athletic Club, belongs to the Vikings and the Masonic and Odd Fellows fraternities, to the Y. M. C. A. Delta Theta Pi law fraternity, and is a Baptist and member of the Chicago Council. Boy Scouts of America.

Mr. Swanson married Mrs. Margaret Carlson, a widow whose two interesting children, Stanley and Wilbur, he has adopted.[1]

Footnotes

[1]. HISTORY OF ILLINOIS AND HER PEOPLE by PROFESSOR GEORGE W. SMITH, M. A. Head, Department of History, State Teachers College, Carbondale, Illinois; Author of a Student's History of Illinois; Member Board of Directors, State Historical Society Assisted by an Advisory Board IN SIX VOLUMES ILLUSTRATED Volume V PUBLISHERS THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Inc. CHICAGO AND NEW YORK 1927 Copyright 1927 The American Historical Society, Inc.